The MUSC in Cologne houses the Lander Control Center (LCC). Supported by their scientific partner (SONC) at CNES in Toulouse, the PHILAE team at LCC is responsible for the control and operation of the Lander. Commands are sent from the LCC to the European control center ESOC in Darmstadt, from where they are forwarded to the new ESA Deep Space Ground Station in New Norcia (Australia) or Malargüe (Argentina) which then transmits them to ROSETTA. Given the distance of ROSETTA from Earth, signal propagation delays can exceed half an hour (one direction). Reception of telemetry happens in reverse order. The operations team, engineers and scientists monitor and analyse data from their instruments through the MUSC-provided data systems and control mechanisms. Following a successful and precise launch from the European space port in Kourou, French Guyana on 2nd March 2004, the first years of the mission are dominated by intense testing: Subsystems and experiments of both the orbiter as well as the lander are checked and their flight characteristics determined.

The Lander Control Center hosts further facilities supporting operations of the Lander. A functionally identical ground model of Philae allows for the testing of planned function sequences and verification of automated procedures. A complex software simulator of the Lander can simulate specific system states and provides the engineers with an opportunity to optimise software configurations for scientific experiment operations on the comet.

Copyright: ESA/Rosetta/Philae/CIVAss

Copyright: ESA/Rosetta/Philae/ROLIS/DLR

Copyright: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

Copyright: ESA/Rosetta/Philae/CIVA

Philae flight activities since launch of the Rosetta mission on 2nd March 2004

26 June 2015Despite a new trajectory for Rosetta and a reduction of the distance between the orbiter and Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko from 200 to 180 kilometres, contact with the Philae lander remains irregular and short. After the initial contact on 13 June 2015, Philae has reported to the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) Lander Control Center (LCC) in Cologne a total of six times. However, for the last three possibilities calculated for establishing a connection with Philae, no data could be received.

19 June 2015The team at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) received data from the Philae lander for the third time on 19 June 2015. Between 15:20 and 15:39 CEST, Philae sent 185 data packets. "Among other things, we have received updated status information," says Michael Maibaum, a systems engineer at the DLR Lander Control Center (LCC) in Cologne and Deputy Operations Manager.

15 June 2015The Philae lander reported back on 14 June 2015. From 23:22 to 23:26 CEST, the lander sent some data packets that are now being evaluated at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR). "But this time, the connection to the lander was relatively unstable," says DLR Philae Lander Project Leader Stephan Ulamec.

14 June 2015The Philae lander has reported back on 13 June 2015 at 22:28 (CEST), coming out of hibernation and sending the first data to Earth. More than 300 data packets have been analysed by the team at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) Lander Control Center: "Philae is doing very well – it has an operating temperature of minus 35 degrees Celsius and has 24 watts of power available," explains DLR’s Philae Project Manager, Stephan Ulamec.

11 June 2015On 15 November 2014 at 01:15 CET, Philae's battery was exhausted and, after nearly 60 hours of operation on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the lander went into hibernation – in an unexpected place. Philae 'bounced' several times before landing in its current location, and its exact position has still not been determined.

10 April 2015Although from 28 March 2015, following difficulties with its star trackers and navigation system, the Rosetta orbiter is now following a new and more distant trajectory around Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the team at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) Lander Control Center (LCC) will begin listening again for signals from the Philae lander at 02:00 CET on 12 April 2015.

20 March 2015
Perhaps it is still too cold for the Philae lander to wake up on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Maybe its power resources are not yet sufficient to send a signal to the team at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) Lander Control Center.

17. November 2014
Before going into hibernation at 01:36 CET on 15 November 2014, the Philae lander was able to conduct some work using power supplied by its primary battery. With its 10 instruments, the mini laboratory sniffed the atmosphere, drilled, hammered and studied Comet 67P/ Churyumov-Gerasimenko while over 500 million kilometres from Earth.

15. November 2014Update – the Philae lander entered sleep mode at 01:36 CET on 15 November 2014.
The Philae lander performed about 56 hours of continuous scientific measurements on the surface of Comet 67P, but by 01:15 CET on 15 November the energy state of the lander became so low that the engineers assumed that Philae would go into sleep mode during the night.

12. November 2014
On 12 November 2014, the Philae lander touched down on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. This is the first time a man-made device has landed on a comet and collected data directly from the surface.
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15. September 2014
When the Philae lander touches down on 12 November 2014, Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko will have a landing site waiting for it with a varied but not too rugged landscape offering good solar illumination and hardly any steep slopes.

28 March 2014
More than two and a half years – this is how long the Philae lander has been hibernating while travelling through space on board the European Space Agency ESA Rosetta spacecraft. On 28 March, the lander was successfully reactivated and broke its planned radio silence by sending data to Earth from a distance of about 655 million kilometres. At 15:40 CET, packet after packet of data started to arrive for the team in the Lander Control Centre (LCC) at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR). The result: "Philae is operational and ready for the next few months," said lander project manager Stephan Ulamec of DLR

08 June 2011
On 8 June 2011, the Rosetta spacecraft will be put into hibernation after having travelled through space for more than seven years. To reduce energy consumption, the European probe will be flying in 'economy mode' as it heads towards its destination, the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. But this will be no break for researchers at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR); they will continue to train in preparation for Rosetta's arrival in May 2014. Six months after reaching the comet, Philae, the Rosetta lander, will become the first spacecraft to land on a comet.

10 July 2010
The European Rosetta spacecraft has achieved a further milestone on its journey to the comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko. On 10 July 2010 at 17:45 CEST, the orbiter flew past asteroid Lutetia on its second and final pass of the asteroid belt at about 15 kilometres per second – 54,000 kilometres per hour – merely 3162 kilometres from the asteroid. The confirmation was delivered at 18:10 CEST to ESA's European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt. The German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) is participating in this unique mission.

05 September 2008
On its way to the actual target of Rosetta, the comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko, there will also take place two flybys at the asteroids Steins and Lutetia. Those rendezvous will enhance or understanding of the small bodies in the solar system considerably.

10 December 2006
The Rosetta mission’s first interactive experiment test phase after the 2004 commissioning was conducted at the end of 2006 with the participation of the Rosetta Lander. The latter was switched on from 28th of November to 9th of December 2006 to do various instrument and system checks.

07 March 2005
Earth Fly-by activities in March 2005
Between 1st March (0:00h UTC) and 7th March (24:00h UTC), the first Earth Fly-by phase was supported from the PHILAE control center in Cologne.

During this timeframe, Philae was activated in order to take photographs of our planet with its panoramic camera system CIVA-P. In total, five pictures were recorded on 4th March between 19:54h UTC and 22:49h UTC. Additionally, the magnetometer ROMAP-MAG was switched on (1st March 01:00h UTC) to perform a calibration with the well-known magnetic field of earth.